Mendocino County Today: Sunday, Mar 22, 2015

• Henderson Bolts
• Asphalt Vote
• Propane Tank
• Albion Bridge
• Frack Water
• One Drink
• Catch o'the Day
• AWOL Kids
• Goat Festival
• Fairfax Leftovers
• River Film
• SPAM Haiku
• Beatniks
• W's Bro
• Moribund Donkeys
• Spring Poetry
• BeStehrkeley
• Cloverdale Arts
• KMEC Video
• Small Farmers

[BACKGROUND] ON MONDAY, March 9, 2015 at about 5:00 PM Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to the Covelo, California area regarding a report of a subject in a vehicle chase shooting at the vehicle in front of him. Deputies responded with assistance from the California Highway Patrol. While responding to the location, Deputies received radio dispatch updates providing them with further information and a vehicle description of the suspect. Deputies encountered the suspect vehicle on Highway 162 near Dos Rios. A traffic stop was conducted and Dustin Henderson, 39, a transient, lately of Willits was identified as the driver. While Henderson was detained at the scene of the traffic stop, Deputies were able to contact the victim. Further investigation revealed Henderson had passed the victim’s vehicle on Highway 162 and when doing so collided with the vehicle while completing the pass. Henderson pulled away and stopped his vehicle in the roadway. Henderson produced a pellet pistol which the victim believed to be a firearm. Henderson fired the pellet pistol at the victim’s vehicle shattering the passenger window and breaking the windshield. The victim was then pursued by Henderson into the Covelo area where he continued to shoot the pellet pistol at the victim’s vehicle. The vehicles traveled through the town of Covelo at a high rate of speed until the victim was able to elude Henderson in the follow of traffic. A search of Henderson’s vehicle revealed a pellet pistol which had the appearance of a firearm as well as pellets, marijuana, and suspected methamphetamine in a hypodermic syringe. Also located in the vehicle were several items of stolen property from a burglary in the Willits area. Henderson was also found to have a theft related felony warrant for his arrest out of the state of Missouri. Henderson was arrested and booked into the Mendocino County Jail on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, criminal threats, receiving stolen property, vandalism, possession of marijuana for sales, possession of methamphetamine, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Henderson was to be held at the Mendocino County Jail in lieu of $30,000.00 bail.

* * *

[March 20, 2015] WILLITS MAN APPEARS IN COURT, THEN ALLEGEDLY LEADS LAW ENFORCEMENT ON CHASE THROUGH UKIAH

by Adam Randall

A 39-year-old Willits man allegedly led law enforcement officials on a foot chase Friday morning from the Mendocino County Superior Courthouse in Ukiah after learning he was going to be remanded into custody on an attempted murder charge, the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office said.

Dustin Gabriel Henderson, was being arraigned before Judge David Nelson around 9:30am on the suspected charge, when the DA made a motion to increase Henderson’s bail in the case which would require him to be taken into custody, said DA spokesman Mike Geniella.

Upon learning the news, he bolted from the courtroom, kicked out a glass exit door on Standley Street, and led responding court bailiffs, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Deputies and Ukiah Police officers on a foot chase north of town before being apprehended in a creek bed, Geniella said.

Henderson was retransported back to court, then to the Mendocino County Jail on $400,000 bail, Geniella said.

Before appearing in court Friday, Henderson previously had two strikes for crimes, one of which involved a prior suspected attempted murder charge out of Oregon, according to Geniella.

Before Friday’s hearing, Henderson was out on $30,000 bail related to the March 9 incident on Highway 162 [above] near Covelo where he allegedly fired a pellet gun pistol at a motorist who he collided with during an attempted pass, according to the Sheriff’s office.

After a search of his vehicle, MCSO deputies allegedly recovered the pistol along with marijuana and methamphetamine believed to be for sale, along with stolen property from a previous suspected burglary in Willits, the Sheriff’s Office said, adding he also had a felony arrest warrant out of Missouri.

The DA’s office further investigated the incident and upgraded Henderson’s charges to attempted murder, Geniella said.

(Courtesy, The Ukiah Daily Journal.)

* * *

ALL IS SAFE and has settled down at the Ukiah courthouse after unusual early morning excitement. A defendant — being remanded into custody on a charge of attempted murder with two prior Strike convictions, along with additional charges — was not interested in going to jail and, instead, made a dash for temporary freedom. He got out of the courtroom, down the stairwell, shattered a side exit glass door, got out on the street — all with bailiffs in pursuit — and was eventually apprehended in a creek bed just north of the courthouse. He was walked back to the same courtroom he had so hastily exited and had his bail increased to over $400K. Thank you for your good work, bailiffs, along with responding Sheriff's deputies and Ukiah Police officers. Thank you also to the citizens who were calling in the defendant's location in real time.

— District Attorney David Eyster

* * *

HENDERSON'S MAD DASH began in Judge David Nelson's courtroom. Prediction: Nelson, the sole advocate for a new County Courthouse, will be quick to use the Henderson episode as an argument for the new building at the foot of West Perkins. Nelson claims the old courthouse is insecure, although Henderson's run for it could have happened anywhere.

HAMBURG AGONISTES

Mendocino County Board Of Supervisors Meeting, March 17, 2015. Agenda Item 6(c)

“Noticed Public Hearing - Discussion and Possible Adoption of a Resolution on a Determination Regarding Section 20.188 of the County Code (Development Review) and whether the Resumption of Asphalt Processing at the Industrially Zoned Longvale Site (APN 036-190-26) Constitutes a “New or Changed” Use as Defined in 20.188.025(C)

“Summary Of Request: This item can only be considered by the Board after action to approve direct review of a zoning interpretation pursuant to Chapter 2.54 of the County Code (Agenda Item 6(b)). This code section allows the Board of Supervisors to take “original jurisdiction” over an administrative determination of the Department of Planning and Building Services pursuant to Chapter 2.54 of the County Code. Section 2.54.010(A) provides for the Board to “reserve to itself the functions of the planning agency when time is of the essence with respect to any permit or approval, based on the project’s special contribution to the County’s general welfare and economic wellbeing, including, but not limited to, projects that provide substantial employment opportunities, and involve County-wide infrastructure improvements.” Section 2.54.010(B)(5) also provides that the Board may consider both the request for direct review and the subject of the approval at the same hearing where deemed appropriate and when properly noticed. Grist Creek Aggregates (GCA) seeks a zoning determination in order to resume asphalt production at the Longvale Site (APN 036-190-26). The proposal includes replacing the former plant with a more efficient asphalt plant that would result in a decrease in process emissions for criteria pollutants. The subject property has a long established history as an aggregate processing and asphalt processing facility. In conjunction with the 2010 rezoning of the property from Rangeland to General Industrial, the Board found that the environmental impact report (EIR) for the 2009 General Plan update fully addressed the environmental impacts of the follow-up rezoning of the property. The General Plan Update EIR found that there would be no additional environmental impact as the ongoing activities were covered by conditions of approval from existing use permits and associated environmental documentation. The staff report accompanying the rezoning ordinance stated that a former 2002 use permit allowing processing and asphalt production under conditions of approval constituted a functional equivalent of Development Review for the Longvale Site, which would normally be required for a “new or changed” industrial use per Chapter 20.188 of the County Code. GCA has provided an “Operational Statement” (dated February 24, 2015) describing the proposed resumption of asphalt production at the site. Included within the statement is a comparison of the proposed plant against the previous plant, demonstrating the efficiency of the newer equipment and the resulting decrease in process emissions for criteria pollutants. Also included is a proposed configuration showing the general layout of the equipment lying substantially within the footprint of the previous operating area (based on aerial photos from March 2004) and no closer to Outlet Creek. Based on a review of the 2002 use permit and the information provided by GCA, staff does not find the proposed resumption of asphalt production to constitute a new or changed use. The site is located approximately 2.5 miles east of Highway 101, extending along the north side of State Highway 162, between the highway and Outlet Creek.

Recommended Action/Motion: Adopt a resolution determining that resumption of asphalt production on APN 036-190-26 is not a new nor changed use pursuant to Mendocino County Code Section 20.188.025 requiring additional development review.

* * *

SUPERVISOR DAN HAMBURG: “I faced a similar situation to this in my district which was the Harris Quarry and there was some neighbors to the south, in fact a school there, the whole Seabiscuit complex is down there. A lot of people would just drive by that quarry and say. Wow! That's just a horrible monstrosity. How can you take that mountain down? I just feel like we're really caught between — and I'm not trying to be funny but — between a rock and a hard place because we have this economy that is built on resource extraction. It does seem to me that it's a dead end, but I don't know, I just feel like stop the world, I want to get off. I don't know how to get off. I don't know how to stop driving on roads. I hate to say this, but everybody who came here today including me drove a car on a road. What my colleague said is true, it makes more sense to produce it locally than it does to ship it in from outside. If you are for a locally based — we all think of localism like, Oh we are going to grow our own food, we are going to develop our local industry, part of that is mining our resources, and again I don't necessarily believe that it's sustainable, in fact I don't believe it's sustainable. I agree that we have a whole industry now of environmental regulators and people who are trying to keep up with this juggernaut we have created, this economy that we have and I think they are losing and I think one sign that we are losing the battle to save our environment is this drought. I mean, most of us who pay attention to real science feel that climate change is very much upon us and that this drought is related to that and that bears on this kind of a project because every time we add more of this resource extraction and more of this industrial growth which is our, sort of our God, we hasten the point at which push has come to shove, so I feel like I would be sort of a hypocrite at this point to vote no on this because I supported it in my own district for the reasons that I just stated, but I have to say that it makes me extremely unhappy to cast this kind of a vote, to support this kind of a project. It has nothing to do to do with you Mr. Hurt [Brian Hurt, business owner/applicant]. I think you're a responsible businessman and I have no reason to not think that you do the very best you can and I'm sure you put amazing resources into trying to comply with all these, this myriad of laws, but you know it's like we have to create more and more and more and more and more and more laws and regulations just to kind of keep up with all the damage we've done and continue to do, so I kind of think the whole thing is a losing game at this point. I don't think we are getting ahead of our environmental crisis in this country and I think projects like this contribute just a little bit more to that environmental crisis but again I don't know how to stop it. I really don't. I'm not sure it's really my job. I think if I were a philosopher or some kind of the guru I would be sitting up here voting no on almost everything that comes before us, but I'm not. I'm a county supervisor trying — you know, one of the things I talk about a lot is how our economy is dead in his county. We are now just getting back to where we were six or seven years ago in terms of the state of our economy and the revenues we take in, so it's a really really difficult vote for me, but again I'm inclined, I'm going to support my colleague because my colleague supported me when it was in my district so I just — well, it means something. Well, not this particular colleague, but his predecessor was. Anyway, I felt like I had to say something to explain my vote and that's what I have to say.”

* * *

The Board voted 5-0 to approve the asphalt plant.

FORT BRAGG PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING

Dear Editors:

I would like to alert interested readers of a proposed Design Review on the Fort Bragg Planning Commission’s agenda for March 25, 2015, 6pm. It is a request to place a 30,000 gallon propane tank at the intersection of N Franklin and E Bush streets, 1.5 blocks from the Central Business zoning area, at a prior (abandoned) petroleum storage site. The Planners have deemed the project to be a “minor” change and hence exempt for just about any sort of meaningful review and needless to say have recommended that the Commission approve the plan. Propane is extremely volatile and can be extremely dangerous. Please Google propane explosions and remember the residential tank explosion in Cleone a few ago and attend the meeting to voice any concerns that you might have. Attached is my letter to the Planning Commission asking them to question staff’s findings.

Sincerely,

Janet Kabel, Fort Bragg

AGING BRIDGE IN CALIFORNIA NEEDS ALL THE SUPPORT IT CAN GET

by Carol Pogash

Sometimes, a bridge is more than a way to get from here to there.

In this ruggedly beautiful town overlooking the Pacific Ocean, residents want to save the Albion River Bridge because they say it defines them. But state officials say the bridge — the last wooden bridge on California’s coastal highway — is too narrow, is too expensive to maintain and would be too vulnerable in a major earthquake. They want to replace it with an arched concrete structure, but a vocal group of residents objects.

“It’s the soul of Albion,” said Dan Clary, 64, whose house sits a few yards from the bridge. “It’s what we are.”

Susan Waterfall, 70, a part-time resident of Albion who with her husband organized the local music festival, agreed. “The bridge is an extension of our eccentricity,” she said.

At 71, the bridge is about the same age as its leading supporters (and opponents). They remain highly functional and do not see why, with funds and repairs, the bridge cannot be the same way.

There are only 156 people in town and maybe 1,000 or more in the nearby hills — including one very wealthy rancher whose support of the old bridge has made a difference. They are up against California’s Department of Transportation, known as Caltrans, which has labeled the structure “functionally obsolete” and “structurally deficient.” A new bridge could cost $27 million to $44 million, while fixing the old one would cost $20 million, Caltrans estimates.

A few people in town, such as Leonardo Bowers, 77 — who happens to be an engineer — say a new bridge makes sense. For his neighbors, however, “the transition to a new bridge is painful,” Mr. Bowers explained. “It’s like a death experience.”

The existing structure is nearly 1,000 feet long and looks like the underpinnings of an old roller coaster. Because they see only part of the bridge as they approach it, drivers along its narrow roadway might not feel the full impact of being suspended between two cliffs, 15 stories above the Albion River as it rushes to the Pacific.

Built during World War II, when resources were limited, the bridge is made of recycled Douglas fir and railway steel. Officials guaranteed that it “would be adequate in every way for a period of more than 15 years,” according to state documents.

“Like your car, things break down,” said Frank Demling, Caltrans’ project manager. “At some point, all bridges need to be replaced.”

The Albion River Bridge is part of California Highway 1, which traces much of the coast here, linking communities while providing tourists a spectacular — if scary — journey.

Even though the bridge is an essential link in the state’s transportation system, “Public participation in the decision-making process is vital,” Mr. Demling said. Before new construction can begin, another state agency, the California Coastal Commission, will have to approve it, and it, too, is “obligated to consider the viewpoints of the locals,” said Bob Merrill, the commission’s north coast district manager.

There are more than 61,000 bridges in the United States that, like this one, are in need of repair. Plenty of cities would love a new bridge, but they are not Albion — a place where many of the residents moved in the 1960s to grow marijuana or to join lesbian and other communes, and where questioning authority is considered a civic duty.

“We came up here as hippies, and now we’re the backbone of Albion,” said Bill Heil, who moderates meetings about the bridge. Today, however, the old rebels with their white ponytails favor the status quo.

Six years ago, the state began holding community meetings to discuss a new bridge. Caltrans officials told residents that the current bridge’s railings were inadequate, that the wood under the pavement could be rotten and that backwash from a tsunami in a worst-possible-scenario earthquake could cause part of the bridge to collapse, Mr. Demling said. A new bridge would be wider, with room for walkers and bicyclists, and would last 75 years, the officials say.

The Albion River Bridge is one of the few in California that has not been seismically retrofitted. For years, residents wondered how long their bridge would last. “There were only so many free passes,” said Mr. Clary’s wife, Carol, 67, who is retired from her job as the postmaster of Albion and has often crossed the bridge’s narrow walkway.

Residents were resigned to what they call “a Walmart bridge” until last summer, when they received unexpected help from John G. Danhakl, a managing partner of Leonard Green, a $15 billion private equity firm in Los Angeles. Mr. Danhakl, who bought a 420-acre ranch here in 2007, has tangled with Caltrans before, and lost, and sympathized with Albion residents who want to preserve their history. “The bridge has served us through seven decades, through wars and earthquakes,” he said in an interview. “It’s old, it’s weird, but I don’t think it needs to be torn down.”

Mr. Danhakl hired Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl, a structural engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who testified as an expert witness at a congressional hearing on the collapse of the World Trade Center.

Professor Astaneh-Asl is a well-known Caltrans critic who favored fixing the Bay Bridge following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Instead, Caltrans built a new eastern span that has been plagued with major cost overruns and structural issues.

Last August, Professor Astaneh-Asl flew to Albion in Mr. Danhakl’s plane to meet the community at the Ledford House Restaurant, overlooking the Pacific, where the owner served homemade snickerdoodles and chocolate chip cookies. Professor Astaneh-Asl told the crowd their bridge was a “treasure” and likened the Caltrans plan for its demise to the Taliban’s destruction of the Buddhas of Bamian, which were built in the sixth century. He challenged the state on its facts, saying that he found the wood under the pavement to be in good condition, and told residents that their legacy could last a lot longer, although in an interview he said no one could say how long.

“There is no reason I can find this bridge should be replaced,” Professor Astaneh-Asl said, adding, “There are so many reasons it should be preserved.”

The state disagrees. “Rehabilitation is not a viable alternative,” Mr. Demling said. With annual maintenance costs at $150,000 and rising, he said, the state could fix the bridge, but even so, the timber might last only 20 more years.

Last month, John Johansen, 72, an Albion architect, filed papers to have the Albion River Bridge listed with the National Registry of Historic Places. “It’s like a cathedral,” he said. He marvels at the craftsmanship and said, “The wood is in great shape.” Mr. Johansen said that the state had done an excellent job maintaining the timber and that in his “personal investigation” he found “no deterioration.”

Listing the bridge in the National Registry could make the state’s quest a lot harder.

There are now two camps in what residents call Albion Nation: pro and con. Michael Issel, 76, an electrical engineer, who is part of a small cadre of engineers who side with Caltrans and its bridge experts, refers to the people in the opposite camp as “the sentimentalists.”

Ms. Clary, the former postmaster, is on the other side and uses the harshest of terms ever used around here to describe the engineers who want a new bridge. “They act like Republicans,” she said.

Mr. Demling of Caltrans will continue to hear from the community. After an environmental report, there will be a public hearing. And after the California Coastal Commission studies the matter, there will be another public hearing. A new bridge could be built by 2021.

Mr. Heil, the meeting moderator, is skeptical. “That old bridge is going to outlive me,” Mr. Heil, who is 74, predicted, “and I might have another 20 years.”

(Courtesy, the New York Times.)

FROM WEEKLY REPORT, RICHMOND DISTRICT POLICE STATION, SAN FRANCISCO

Arrest: Driving Under The Influence / Traffic Collision

Fulton & 36^th Ave / 03-15-2015 5:24 PM

Officers responded to a vehicle collision where a driver told them that she was stopped at a red light when another driver rear ended her car and then hit a tree. After the collision, the other driver got out of his car, gathered up his empty beer cans and hid them in his trunk. The suspect told the officers that he had consumed only “one beer.” This is unlikely, since his blood alcohol was measured at .172% and there were several empty beer cans in his car. Fortunately, the innocent driver was not injured.

* * *

Arrest: Driving Under The Influence

Geary & 3^rd Ave

03-15-2015 2:12 AM

Officers stopped a driver who was swerving and speeding. He appeared to be under the influence of alcohol and performed poorly on field sobriety tests. He initially told the officers that he only had “one glass of wine” (the oenophile’s variation on the “one beer” claim). He subsequently revised his estimate to “one bottle of wine” which is more consistent with his blood alcohol of .186%.

CATCH OF THE DAY, March 21, 2015

MORGAN AMMERMAN, Ukiah. Criminal threats of death or great bodily harm, probation revocation.

BRITTON AZBILL, Covelo. Vehicle theft.

ANGELO BETTEGA, Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, false ID.

ERASMO CONTRERAS JR., San Jose/Ukiah. Ex-felon with firearm.

DUSTIN HENDERSON, Willits. Escape, offenses committed while on bail, attempted murder.

BRENT HAAS, Ukiah. Domestic battery, under influence of controlled substance.

MARIA GARCIA, Ukiah. Vehicle theft, false documents.

JEFFERY HOCKETT, Fort Bragg. Drunk in public.

DONOVAN KOHN, Santa Rosa/Redwood Valley. Pot possession for sale, sale-transport-furnish, possession of more than an ounce of pot, false information to cop.

MIGUEL LOPEZ, Ukiah. Vehicle theft, no license, receiving stolen property, fake registration, false ID, failure to appear.

TROY MINEART, Covelo. DUI.

TASHA ORNELAS, Probation revocation.

KEVIN PIKE, Ukiah. Removing communication equipment to prevent call for help.

TERRY RICHMOND, Willits. Domestic battery, child endangerment.

LISA RODMAN, Willits. Under influence of controlled substance, sale to and consumption by minor.

BRENDAN SMALL, Eureka. Drunk in public, battery on emergency responder, parole violation.

CHARLES TOMKA JR., Fort Bragg. Vehicle theft, failure to appear.

AMBER VOGT, Sebastopol. Pot possession for sale, sale-transport-furnish, possession of more than an ounce of pot, false information to cop.

AND NOW THIS HERE, the Daughters of Jacob Assisted Living Center, the air redolent of boiled hot dogs and Lysol, Mantovani strings drifting through the halls like musical Haldol, old folks sitting alone in the lobby just staring at air, filling him with anger at their awol kids.

— Richard Price, The Whites

THE INAUGURAL ANDERSON VALLEY GOAT FESTIVAL will be April 25, 2015, 10am-4pm accompanying the Unity Club’s annual Spring Wildflower Show at the Boonville Fairgrounds. Free. April 25 & 26. All things goat including goat milking, cheese making, goat raising, fiber arts, soap making.. Birria Cook off contest (pronounced Bi-rri-a) Birria is a spicy Mexican goat stew from the state of Jalisco — mid-day contest.

Prizes: Dance Lesson: Texas 10 step hosted by Dean Titus, 6-7pm, Apple Hall @ Boonville Fairgrounds. Dance to Dean Titus and the Boot Jack 5 & Susan Clark, 7-10pm. Tickets for dance $10 includes dance lesson 6 - 10 pm. Vendors, presenters Birria cooks needed. Contest! Prizes! Volunteers. Artists. Performers. Contact Jim Devine 707/496 8725 or avgoats@gmail.com. $5 suggested donation for AV Foodshed. 4-6pm. Lauren’s cafe & food vendors will offer special menu items before the dance: wine, beer, snacks, beverages.

ENTERING FAIRFAX from San Anselmo, a banner stretched across Sir Francis Drake Blvd reads, “Leftovers Get New Life In Fairfax.” It makes me feel welcome, and there do indeed seem to be a lot of leftovers milling around Fairfax mid-day but maybe they work nights. Walking around the two towns I see a lot of Prop 13 houses, meaning battered old tract jobs that went for twenty to thirty thou back when Marin was just another place, albeit a place with perfect weather, lots of open space presided over by Mount Tamalpais, and only a few minutes from the big city. Property prices started going nuts in the mid-70s and are still crazy, but Prop 13 froze property taxes so a lot of ground floor hippies simply stayed on in the homes they grew up in, the homes mom and pop paid off before they died, and here they sit in 2015, rusting vehicles out front, jungle shrubbery, encouraging squalor amid the splendor of the endless new money and their semi-palatial do-overs. You'll see a gaunt old rocker totter out into his Prop 13 driveway to pick up the morning Chron, the paper of record along with the San Rafael Independent Journal. Because Prop 13 man is cyber-resistant, the two papers are his primary sources of information, the tv chuckle buddies providing evening visuals. Prop 13 Man is Marin and Frisco-centric, knows the history of both places back to Junipero Serra. He's followed the Giants since Willie Mays roamed centerfield at Seals Stadium, the Warriors all the way back to when they played at the Cow Palace and the Civic Center Auditorium, and the Niners forever, although he's written off the Niners because of Jeb York and the Yorks' new mall-stadium in Santa Clara, wherever the hell that is. Prop 13 Man has never been south of SF International.

THERE ARE A LOT of old hippies in Fairfax, more than there are in Boonville or even Albion. My theory is that during the great exodus from the SF Bay Area in the late 1960s, the much heralded back to the land movement, the hips most freaked by the high level of urban violence, the most energetic longhairs, fled all the way to Del Norte and Trinity counties; the least energetic just dragged themselves over the Golden Gate Bridge on out to Fairfax and West Marin where you could still find an old house for relative peanuts. The intermediately energetic made it to Mendocino County and Southern Humboldt where they made literal fortunes from their natural gifts as botanists.

MARIN THESE DAYS, the only people doing visible work are Mexicans. In San Francisco, white parents have pretty much abandoned a perfectly good public school system. In Marin, public and private schools are probably about the same academically but the private schools are also jammed. I haven't seen a Marin kid over the age of eight who wasn't gazing into a handheld gizmo. When school lets out it's striking how many young girls are dressed "inappropriately," and you wonder what their parents are thinking, if they're thinking. But then you remember how old you are and how any pre-67 notions of modesty walked out the door that same year. Boys still look like boys, and how they keep their pubes from shorting out sitting in a history class surrounded by Lolitas would make an interesting PhD investigation. San Anselmo has lots of young families, Fairfax too, but Fairfax, as its banner puts it, is a lot heavier on leftovers. People look more downscale even if they aren't. Of the two towns, Fairfax is much the livelier with bars and restaurants and a theater playing first-run movies. San Anselmo goes to bed at 9.

SHEPHERD BLISS WRITES:

New Screenings Announced - The Russian River All Rivers - The Value of An American Watershed

"The Russian River: All Rivers" is a wonderful film. It is showing in your area soon, and we are planning to bring it to Granges in Sebastopol and elsewhere. Following is an update on pending showings. It has ample footage on the large wineries in rural areas devastating local ag. and the environment. You can host a showing by responding to the sender of this email. If you plan to go, be sure to reserve tickets. It has been selling out all over he North Bay. Please forward this information to all who might be interested.

SUNDAY, MARCH 22, 2015 at 1:30pm

Screening sponsored by Grace Hudson Museum at City Council Chambers

300 Seminary Avenue

Ukiah, CA 95482

To reserve seats: reservations@russianriverallrivers.com

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2015 at 7pm

Screening sponsored by Sierra Club Lake Group at Lake County Board of Supervisors Chambers

255 N. Forbes Street

Lakeport, CA 95453

To reserve seats: reservations@russianriverallrivers.com

FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 2015 at 7pm

Sustainable Living Movie Night

The Community Room at the Round Valley Library Commons

23925 Howard Street

Covelo, CA 95428

TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 2015 at 7pm

Arena Theater

214 Main Street

Point Arena, CA 95468

Screening hosted & sponsored by Friends of the Gualala River

RSVP: reservations@russianriverallrivers.com

Also co-sponsoring the event: KGUA radio station, Jeanne Jackson, Mendonoma Sightings, Point Arena Lighthouse, Go Local Mendonoma, Redwood Coast Watershed Alliance, Redwood Coast Land Conservancy, Moat Creek Management Agency, The Conservation Fund

THURSDAY, APRIL 16 at 7pm – doors open 6pm

Arcata Playhouse

1251 9th Street

Arcata, CA 95521

Screening sponsored by the Northcoast Environmental Center & Friends of the Eel River

Tickets at the door

FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 2015 at 5pm

This film is an Official Selection for the 38th Annual International Wildlife Film Festival 2015

718 S Higgins Avenue

Missoula, Montana 59801

for ticket info: http://wildlifefilms.org/

THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2015 at 7pm

Raven Film Center

415 Center Street

Healdsburg, CA 95448

to reserve seats: reservations@russianriverallrivers.com

SPAM HAIKU

Like a new piglet
Slick with slime, SPAM emerges
Making sucking sounds.

 

Perfection uncanned
Like a beautiful redhead
Fresh from her trailer.

 

Through the wall I hear
My neighbor say, "What good SPAM!"
I burn with envy.

 

In the cabinet,
It lurks, unseen, forgotten . . .
Then you move the soup.

 

Winter trailer home:
Bills unpaid — no heat inside.
Raw SPAM for dinner.

 

In the thawing snow,
The can’s blue corner peeps out
Like spring’s first crocus.

 

Hold tight, street person!
Wise-ass crow on the Dumpster
is eyeing your SPAM.

 

My friend is kosher,
She doesn’t understand my
Passionate love, tears.

 

Four children later
We run out of things to say.
"Price of SPAM is up."

 

A half-eaten slice.
Ants swarm the cold, greasy plate.
A suicide note.

…THOSE WHO CRITICIZE the police for tearing down the poems have never had personal contact with the beatniks and do not know the real picture on Upper Grant Avenue. The people who frequent the area hate other things besides policemen. They hate work, industry and conformity with the rules which govern society. They are typical of the pseudo-intellectual element found in an intellectual slum. New York has Greenwich Village, Southern California has Venice and we have Grant Avenue. The beatniks sit around the various beer and wine dives at all hours of the day and deride any hardworking effort. They create a police problem because of their attitude. Policemen 'bug' them because they keep them from doing whatever comes into their heads whenever they feel like doing it, whether it be day or night.

— Peter Gardner, union newsletter, SFPD, 1959

GOING ALONG WITH THE DONKEY AS LONG AS THE ELEPHANTS ARE WORSE?

Just a Pile of Gangrene

by Ralph Nader

When the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) has its annual howling convention in the Washington, DC area, the mainstream mass media expands its coverage like an accordion from the weeks leading up to the gathering to the analysis of the aftermath. Why? Because a demanding CPAC summons all the Republican contenders for the presidential nomination and woe be the potential candidates who excuse themselves.

What is the counterpart for the Democrats? The nearest is Robert Borosage’s smaller convention (this year it is called Populism2015), which is easily ignored by the Democratic incumbents in the White House and the current frontrunner Hillary Clinton. Borosage has given up even inviting President Obama to come down Connecticut Avenue and speak to the faithful at the Washington Hilton or other venues.

Turn on C-SPAN and the “Road to the White House” is complete with speeches at events and convocations where the Republican contenders for the presidency brandish their ambitions. Where is the C-SPAN coverage of the Democratic counterparts? Well, Hillary hasn’t announced yet and only Martin O’Malley (former governor of Maryland), Jim Webb (former Senator from Virginia) and Senator Bernie Sanders (VT) are stirring the waters, but none of these “candidates in waiting” have announced. No contest. The Republicans dominate C-SPAN’s “Road to the White House” and will until the end of the primary season next year with their repetitious fact-starved fulminations.

Tethered to the Party’s militarist and corporatist Democrats like the Clintons, Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers, liberals and those on the Left rarely escape these ties, which means that their demands for progressive change are often shrugged off. Democratic candidates know progressives think they have no choice but to support the Democratic nominee. At the same time, the radical Right at CPAC summons the Republican candidates and issues them an ultimatum: give attention to the right-wing agenda or else. Senator John McCain found this out in the 2008 presidential campaign.

Look at the competition within the Republican Party, including Florida Senator Marco Rubio who has no problem criticizing the dynastic Jeb Bush. Compare this with the absence of any Democrat challenging the dynastic Hillary Clinton. The latter’s march to the coronation leaves the press with little more than commenting on her inevitability, the riches of the Clinton Foundation, and her prowess in raising money. (The recent self-inflicted email hot seat is an exception.) In fact, one report said that the only opponent to Hillary may be the media itself as a surrogate for the moribund party.

Bill Curry, a life-long Democrat, has observed in the columns he writes how ideologically active and challenging the Republicans are compared to the Democrats.

It is not as if the Democrats could not have their own robust primary with competing platforms, reflecting majoritarian American support. Such exercises are not currently on the table. The very idea of such a competitive presidential primary is seen as undermining the prospects of the anointed Hillary.

Just as in 2004, the anti-Iraq War movement suspended its massive rallies against that military sociocide because John Kerry said he would manage our military adventures better with even more soldiers. The Democratic Left certainly did not want to embarrass Kerry (“I am not a redistributionist Democrat”) because he was the Democrats’ hope to defeat Bush. The fact that the Iraq War was unpopular, even without the Democratic Party emphasizing any opposition to it, escaped the timid, cowering and calculating operatives. The cautious Kerry lost.

The organized labor unions are on the ropes with shrinking membership, uninspired leadership (with a few exceptions such RoseAnn DeMoro of the fast growing National Nurses United) and unable even to stop more so-called right-to-work drives by the anti-union politicians such as Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin.

So should the AFL-CIO and its member unions follow the lead of the moribund Democratic Party? Hell no, if you look at their roaring website and emails. Hell yes, if you look at the anemic organizing budgets, the barren streets and the unwillingness to challenge the White House or the Democratic Party head-on.

Labor unions rarely hold mass rallies and targeted demonstrations anymore (again with the exception of the nurses fighting the hospital chains or pressing for a tax on Wall Street stock and derivative trades). Union bureaucracies are not connecting with their own rank and file because they offer little to connect with and much to avoid answering for.

The once vibrant union newspapers and magazines and the nationally syndicated “Voice of Labor” radio show are either gone or shells of what they could be.

The unions have moved into virtual reality; often, their idea of mobilizing for or against some legislation is to send out emails!!

Is there any more indicative sign of their own self-regarding complacency than the AFL-CIO having so few people pushing OSHA to work on the preventable loss of about sixty thousand laborers from workplace-related trauma and disease every year?

For the liberal intelligentsia and their pundits and funders, the “least-worst mindset” doesn’t just kick in around election time as their chosen attitude to the two-party tyranny; it’s in their DNA from the outset. So long as they are generically supine, the least-worst approach destroys bargaining power and makes the Democratic Party worse every cycle because of the 24/7 influence of monetizing corporatists.

So, here we tediously go again for 2016 unless the progressives stop demoralizing themselves with political resignation and begin applying the dicta of the great abolitionist, Frederick Douglass: “Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never did and it never will.”

So start with a progressive counterpart for CPAC this autumn and summon the candidates—presidential, senatorial and congressional to the stage. Can Democrats at least do that to awaken themselves and their party from their stupor?

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post in (2001) titled “The Democratic Party is Dead.” What is it now? Is it just a pile of gangrene that can only be resuscitated out of fear of how much worse the Republican Party is for the people, for the country and for the world?

Ralph Nader’s latest book is: Unstoppable: the Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State.

MENDOCINO SPRING POETRY — SUNDAY JUNE 14

This first day of Spring anticipates the 40th Anniversary of the Mendocino Spring Poetry Celebration in the tenth year of its revival, on Sunday June 14, 2015. As before, the event will be held at the Hill House in Mendocino town, with a gathering at Noon and again at 5:00. Prepare now to enjoy some of the best work from the north counties and beyond.

All poems will be considered for broadcast in subsequent weeks by Dan Roberts on KZYX&Z FM. Pick up a pen now and don't set it down until you've written the first lines of the season.

For information contact Gordon Black at gblack@mcn.org.

* * *

OUR CONTRIBUTION:

There once was a station in Philo

Which had no local affairs talk show

It is plain to see

That KZYX&Z

Will still be boring and pointless post-Sako.

CRAIG STEHR WRITES: Middle of a sunny Friday afternoon Finished reading instructions from Nisargadatta's "The Ultimate Medicine" He emphasizes identifying non-dualistically With that which is prior to consciousness. And please he sez, stop suffering due to Your confusion that you are the Body and/or Mind with its oozes and Thought factory and all the rest of this Vast ocean of samsaric phenomenal appearance Which has no past or future, only a present That proves once and for all that nothing has Ever existed! Happy Spring Equinox.

PS. I am leaving the Green Tortoise Hostel in North Beach Sunday at 11 A.M., and (once more) will be at Piedmont House Hostel in Berzerkeley through the month of March... The game is that there is a need to be here through tax season, to cooperate with bankers, a financial adviser, and a tax preparer, so that I do not do something insane like just send a check naively to Washington DC, hence financing the Republican party's endless global wars. I assume that the file is closed on the Viet Nam war. That's correct, isn't it?

CLOVERDALE ARTS ALLIANCE: "TEMPO" ARTISTS' RECEPTION

March 20 - May 14, 2015

Hours: Friday - Sunday, 11-5pm

Artists' Reception:

Saturday, March 21, 2015 • 5-8 pm

204 N. Cloverdale Blvd.

Downtown Cloverdale

707-894-4410

THE YOUTUBE VIDEO of our 16 March show on KMEC Radio with Melvin Goodman is now posted — please share with your friends or post to your website. (John Sakowicz)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WEBMbjdSyc&feature=youtu.be

POT CAMPAIGN 2016

Happy Spring Members and future Members!

First, the Small Farmers Association Board of Directors gives you a great big thank you to those of you that have already made an important impact on the most critical County subject right now, Medical Cannabis! Thank you for your membership renewal and thank you to our new members!

Do you want the Small Farmer to survive in the commercialization of Cannabis? Farmers are still largely so anti-organization, but we're all going to lose out if we don't come out of the woodwork, unify and stand up to corporate interests that will commercialize the industry and steal our livelihoods and wreck our economy.

It’s time to renew your membership today! Please go to our website at www.Smallfarmers.us to sign up!

And as a SFA member or future member, you can send this letter, or a similar letter, to the Mendocino County Supervisors to get the Mendocino Plant Count up! Here are the different districts and contacts....You can also call or fax (707) 463-4221 Tel (707) 463-7237 Fax:

• District 1: John McCowen - McCowen@co.Mendocino.ca.us
• District 2: Carrie Brown - Browncj@co.Mendocino.ca.us
• District 3: Tom Woodhouse - tmgwoodhouse@Hotmail.com
• District 4: Dan Gjerde - Gjerde@co.mendocino.ca.us
• District 5: Dan Hamburg - vote@pacific.net

SAMPLE LETTER

Honorable Mendocino County Board of Supervisors C/OMarijuana Legalization Ad Hoc 501 Low Gap Rd. Rm1010 Ukiah, CA 95482

RE: Plant Count Increase

Dear Members of the Board and Committee,

Thank you for your efforts thus far in diligently reviewing the rather large topic of Marijuana Legalization and potential effects on Mendocino County. Your efforts are proactive and necessary for the economic well-being of our rural community.

It is with urgency I make this formal request to the Board of Supervisors to direct County Council to reach out to Regional U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag regarding amicable plant caps on medical marijuana cultivation in Mendocino County. Our neighboring counties with higher plant caps and no Department of Justice objection include Lake County plant cap at 48, Sonoma County plant cap at 30 and Humboldt County relying on the District Attorney position of 99 or less without regulation. It is in Mendocino County’s best economic interest to direct County Council to inquire with Ms. Haag if such neighboring plant caps in regulation would suffice for Mendocino County.

By allowing Mendocino farmers and business entrepreneurs to prepare for upcoming legalization with plant counts more inline with our neighboring producer Counties you will help feed all small business in Mendocino County. It will also assist Mendocino County in gaining back their role as a leader in an industry that provides the majority of economic buying power in our County. The SFA has requested the plant count cap be increased to 50 plants — two more plants than Lake County and twenty more plants than Sonoma County.

Whether you are a medical cannabis user or not, we all make up the Community of Mendocino County and act as a community together. Churches, hospitals, vacuum cleaner repair shops, schools, etc. do not use medical cannabis and benefit financially from it, with the majority of their income coming from the cannabis industry. The cannabis industry keeps small business open in rural producer counties. With a plant count more in line with neighboring Counties, we can match their economic life in lieu of falling behind our neighboring counties in economic vibrancy.

Please take action now. Our families and small businesses survival depends on it!

Sincerely,

Your name

— Small Farmers Association

POB 1605 Ukiah, CA 95482

707.489.0996